Name Guide Me

Built by Ferris at Looe in 1911 as a mackerel drifter. GUIDE ME worked out of Looe and Mevagissey until 1966.

The current owners bought her in Fareham in 1977, registered in Portsmouth as Guidez Moi GUIDEZ MOI but with  GUIDE ME carved into her bulwarks. 

The Fowey harbour ledgers confirmed she was Guide Me, FY233, 40ft by 13ft by 5ft 9ins draught, larch on oak, a sailing lugger with jib, lug and mizzen, using drift nets and longlines to ply her fishing trade. She was commissioned by William Woodrow Pengelly, built in Looe by master shipwright Peter Ferris and launched on 17th July 1911. She was one of the last sailing drifters built entirely for sail, but engines were gaining popularity and she had a 4HP Kelvin installed in February 1912. She worked out of Looe for 55 years, with a brief spell in Mevagissey during WWII, and was then sold to the Channel Islands in 1966, where her name was changed.

The current owners spent 10 years restoring her to her original form and rig, though now a family home, on the banks of the Helford River in 1987 she sailed her, engineless again, in the first Falmouth Classics, with Barnabas the only other lugger. In 1988 she took part in the Maritime Festival in Douarnenez, then sailed south and slightly west to Spain, Portugal, the Madeiras, the Canaries, the Cape Verdes and Brazil. From Rio we headed east across the Atlantic to Cape Town, arriving in March 1989. In 1991/1992 GUIDE ME sailed north, back to Falmouth, via Namibia, Brazil, French Guyana, Suriname, Tobago, the Caribbean, Bermuda, Brest and Douarnenez. She is based on the Helford, wintering in Gweek and sailing in summer.

 Purchased in 1977 by Judy Brickhill who sailed her in1988 to South Africa via Brazil. Returned to Cornwall in 1992. GUIDE ME is still in private ownership and is probably the most original Cornish Lugger afloat. She has no engine.